“I hear no objection in the room, I declare the Paris climate agreement adopted.” It was with these words, on Saturday, 12 December, that Laurent Fabius closed the fierce negotiations that had been underway for two weeks in Le Bourget. A long standing ovation and shouts of joy followed in the room where the 195 countries had gathered to adopt the Paris agreement, a historic agreement to combat climate change.

This plenary session, which had already been postponed several times, had started with a moment of uncertainty: shortly after entering the room, the President of COP21 had slipped out again with Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and Laurence Tubiana, the French Ambassador responsible for climate negotiations.

On his return, he then promptly took the floor to confirm the adoption of the agreement, alongside François Hollande, President of the French Republic.

After two weeks of negotiations and months of bargaining, six months after the resounding failure that lastingly marked all memories of COP15, in Copenhagen, he celebrated the completion of the French Presidency’s work.
“So you have done it; you have done what we failed to do six years ago, here in Paris.”

EU-China Summit From left to right: Mr Jean-Claude JUNCKER, President of the European Commission; Mr Li KEQIANG, Prime Minister of China; Mr Donald TUSK, President of the European Council. Shoot location: Bruxelles – BELGIUM Shoot date: 02/06/2017 Copyright: European Union